Esther Duflo

Abhijit Banerjee

Why do the poor borrow to save? Why do they miss out on free life-saving immunizations, but pay for unnecessary drugs? In Poor Economics, Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, two practical visionaries working toward ending world poverty, answer these questions from the ground. In a book the Wall Street Journal called “marvelous, rewarding,” the authors tell how the stress of living on less than 99 cents per day encourages the poor to make questionable decisions that feed—not fight—poverty. The result is a radical rethinking of the economics of poverty that offers a ringside view of the lives of the world's poorest, and shows that creating a world without poverty begins with understanding the daily decisions facing the poor.

A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty

Poor Economics

In a book based on years of research, the award-winning founders of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT show how the world's extreme poor truly live.

akshita

most recent famines have been caused not by the lack of food availability but by institutional failures that led to poor distribution of available food, or even hoarding and storage in the face of starvation elsewhere.

Mencerahkan banget tentang berbagai aspek dari kemiskinan; kenapa bisa struktural, berantai dan begitu memerangkap. Bahasanya mudah dimengerti untuk orang awam, sampai bisa aku dengarkan via audiobook tanpa macet-macet berarti. Selain pembahasan yang membumi, buku ini rasanya makin dekat dan penting karena beberapa narasumber tetapnya adalah orang Indonesia. Jebakan kemiskinan ini salah satu nuansa yang tidak bisa kita kecualikan untuk hidup bermasyarakat. Bagi yang hoki terlahir di luar kemiskinan, belajar hal ini menurut aku penting banget supaya nggak kerasukan kelas sosial, bisa merasakan solidaritas dengan yang hidup susah, dan lebih mindful dalam berjualbeli supaya bisa terlibat dalam ekonomi in a way that matters. Tentu yang paling berkewajiban menuntaskan kemiskinan adalah pemerintah. Tapi melihat kemiskinan diuraikan sampai akar-akarnya begini, aku sebagai rakyat biasa juga serasa bisa menemukan sedikit celah untuk saling mendukung. Semua orang (wabilkhusus politikus apalagi pembuat kebijakan) plis baca buku ini!

Ps. pakpres bumen, we NEED basic universal income!!!!!

Chaitanya Baranwal

Poor Economics has been a very enlightening book to read – in essence it is a book that analyses the ground realities of the lives of poor people from an economic and policy perspective, as well as what potential steps can be taken to work towards the intractable problem of world poverty. It starts by addressing that broad strokes argument of "aid versus no aid" or "government intervention vs free market" are not useful. Instead, we need to look at the ground realities and design policies for specific areas such as food, education, health and finances to make any measurable progress. That is how the book is structured – each chapter takes a closer look at such a specific area.

Each chapter starts with specific questions about why poor people act the way they do, ways which might seem strange or unexplainable to more well-off sections of society. The authors present hypotheses, answer those hypotheses by using existing evidence, primarily randomized-controlled trails, and keep building up the argument by introducing more questions and poring deeper into the issue. Each chapter ends with some well-made conclusion about the economics of poor people, as well as some suggestions on designing more effective policies to eradicate poverty.

To me this book has been eye-opening because it uncovers so many assumptions, and sheds light on the massive ways in which the lives of poor people are different from those who earn more. Questions like sending children to school, not investing more in preventive health technologies, ineffectiveness of hunger initiatives, obtaining reliable sources of credit are addressed. All of these point to some generalizable shortcomings – information asymmetry, inefficient institutions, as well as living under tremendous amounts of risk. Although slightly outdated in its facts, I would suggest everyone to read this, since many ideas in the book are still relevant and would be relevant for some time – since we can only chop bit-by-bit at the problem of poverty, instead of solving it in one fell swoop.

Arturo Hernández

This essay really made me think about a lot of the aspects that generate (and maintain) lots of communities in a poverty state. I have never heard before the reflections regarding the idea of a “poverty trap” and how for some it’s really impossible to get out from specific levels of it. I perceive it’s a quite reveling read, one that helps you understand your own privilege.

I understand the purpose of this book as an informative piece of literature, I would love however to have more material to understand how can we, as a community, unite to really do something about this whole situation.

Ahmed Salem

جئت للكتاب للحصول على اجابات محددة حول كيفية حل مشاكل الفقر المختلفة من غذاء و تعليم و صحة 
الا ان الكتاب فاجئني بانه ممتلئ بالأسئلة أكثر منه بالاجابات

لانه في الحقيقة يتضح ان حل مشاكل المجتمعات الفقيرة هي متفردة بتفرد كل مجتمع حسب ثقافته و ظروفه الخاصة

متعة عقلية شيقة للمسؤولين عن الوطن اذا احبوا علاج مشكلة الفقراء

Roos Havinga

This book is a must-read for everybody remotely interested in economics and development economics. I love how Duflo and Banerjee very actively stay away from the big questions making the problems the poor face today more realistic and more actionable. Especially love this book because it stays away from preaching and swooping conclusions; RCTs are not a cure-all, but they do provide useful information and can bring the goal of nobody living under 0.99$ a day closer.

Rahma Ali

A general review on global ‘rigorous’ evidence on what works in poverty alleviation. Depressing and hopeful at the same time. Highly recommended for development professionals whether researchers or practitioners.

Poor Economics A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty

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